Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on various components of the project across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
